Priest wins defamation case over claim of Gozo 'sex abuse cover-up’
A priest has won a defamation case against a man who alleged that he had ignored and covered up child sex abuse in Gozo.
A magistrate found that the claims were baseless and defamatory and ordered the man to pay the priest €2,000 for the reputational damage he had caused with the claims.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello was ruling in a case brought by Mgr Joseph Vella Gauci against Pierre Gaffiero.
Gaffiero claimed on Twitter that the priest, who at the time headed the Appoġġ Child Protection Services in Gozo, had failed to act on claims of sexual abuse of two children entrusted in the custody of their grandparents.
“This is not a priest! We approached this priest to save children from being abused and you know what? He did nothing! This priest represents the child care centre Appoġġ as the head in Gozo.
“Who do you think he is covering?” Gaffiero wrote in one of the posts in 2020.
'Allegations were unfounded'
Yesterday, Vella Gauci testified that just a few days before posting those tweets, Gaffiero had spoken to him about claims of abuse, including of a sexual nature, and of the mistreatment of two children at the hands of their grandparents.
The priest told the court that before...